Facebook bans owner of pro-veteran page for being ‘insensitive’

It seems the good folks over at Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children can’t get a break. At least not from Facebook. On Thursday, Rick Ferran, the owner of the page, told me he was banned for being “insensitive.” The last time I looked, Facebook’s terms do not require one to be “sensitive” according to moderators at the social media giant.

The reason he and the rest of his administrators were banned stems from a meme they created that others posted on their personal pages or timelines. Mind you, these other pages had nothing to do with Uncle Sam’s — they just shared the picture.

The meme simply says, “Muslims hate pork, beer, dogs and freedom of speech. My question is, what the hell do they come to America for?!” You can see the meme below:

As you can see, it contains no nudity, no graphic language, doesn’t attack a religion, race or creed. It simply makes a statement and asks a question. One that I’m sure many would like answered.

One of those who posted the picture was Christie New Craig, chairwoman of the Chesapeake school board. Craig said she doesn’t support the content and shared it for informational purposes only, which is allowed under Facebook’s rules.

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“I merely shared it. I did not make a comment, and I’m just shocked with everything going on in our country – police officers are losing their lives, people are homeless and people don’t have jobs – that a political cartoon would cause this much stir,” she told WAVY.

“The Chesapeake Public Schools Board’s silence on this issue will inevitably be viewed as acceptance and approval of anti-Muslim bigotry. We therefore formally request that the board take up this important issue at its next meeting on Monday, September 14. The board must send a message to students and parents of all faiths and backgrounds in the district and the state that they deserve equal respect and support,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.

“Only by addressing this issue can the board uphold its stated commitment ‘to the principle of equal opportunity for all and does not permit discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.’”

Translation: We’re your overlords and you will only hold or express opinions with which we agree.

Ferran told me that not only were he and his admins slapped, other pages that displayed the meme were punished. Some were unpublished. He also said that his administrators have been banned five times in just the last week.

For those of you who may not know, this isn’t the first time Uncle Sam’s has been targeted by Facebook. They first got hammered back in July 2013 when Facebook unpublished their page. At that time, they had over 600,000 “likes.” Facebook never fully explained the reason, and teased administrators later when they restored the page for just a few hours.

Ferran, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps who escaped Castro’s Cuba as a young man, didn’t give up. He pressed on, rebuilt the page, and rebuilt it again when Facebook tore that down.

Mind you, the commentary at Uncle Sam’s is brutally honest and the memes are as far from politically correct as you can get. They do not, however, violate Facebook’s stated rules.

And therein lies the problem. It seems that Facebook’s moderators have been given carte blanche to do whatever they want to whomever they want for any reason or no reason at all, Community Standards and Supreme Court rulings be damned. If a person they don’t like isn’t actually violating the rules, they’ll just make something up.

Consider: Just this year, Facebook banned one user, telling her that her profile picture, which consisted of a lilac tree, was pornographic.

In July, Facebook yanked a pro-veteran page, telling the owner a picture of the Marine Corps emblem somehow violated their standards. Another user was told her picture promoting marriage as being between one man and one woman violated community standards. Users have also been punished for links they never posted.

Moderators have also falsely flagged articles that simply mention Islam as being “unsafe.” This happened several times after we reported that Dave Gaubatz, author of “Muslim Mafia,” told us that at least one Muslim group was working with Facebook to silence those critical of Islam. After we reported Facebook’s actions, the false flags were removed.

Facebook executives and spokespeople routinely say the company supports free speech. The actions of their moderators, however, tell a much different story. And the fact that it continues even after being exposed would seem to indicate approval on the part of management.

We’ve spoken to Facebook, had email exchanges with Facebook employees, even participated in protest events. None of that has worked.

Why not just leave? Many would like to, but sadly, there’s not an alternative with the reach Facebook has. There are some good alternatives like the Tea Party Community, but they have only a fraction of the market Facebook has.

It’s time lawmakers step in and take action to put an end to the nonstop abuse Facebook routinely metes out to its users. Enough is enough.

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Joe ran for a city council position in Riverside, Calif., in 1991 and managed successful campaigns for the Idaho state legislature. Co-author of "Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad," Joe wrote for Examiner.com from 2010 until it closed in 2016 and his work has been published at Newsbusters, Spokane Faith and Values and other sites. He now runs the Conservative Firing Line.

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